Iranians bent on boycotting parliamentary polls

Noura Bendari

More and more Iranians call for boycotting the parliamentary elections, slated for February 21.

The view among ordinary Iranians is that the elections will only put new arms of the supreme Iranian leader in their country’s legislature. This is particularly so in the presence of fierce competition between the fundamentalists and reformists, ahead of the elections.

Meanwhile, Iranian authorities are adopting a hard line against reformist candidates. However, Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, called for allowing the representatives of all his country’s political currents to run in the elections.

Boycott calls

Some political parties and organizations issued a statement, in which they called for boycotting the elections. They believe the elections will not improve the conditions of the Iranian people.

On February 8, the news site, Iran International, published a statement by Iranian opposition parties. The parties lashed out at deteriorating political conditions in their country in the past four decades. The supreme leader and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corpse, they said, have plans for possessing the majority of seats in the parliament.

The political parties added that Iranian authorities do not try to change their ways, despite the political crisis in the country. The authorities, they said, want to silence opposition voices.

Claims

On February 5, Supreme Guide, Ali Khamenei,  asked the Iranian people not to heed the boycott calls of the opposition. The coming elections, he said, would be the fairest in Iran’s history. Khamenei also called on activists and government officials to mind what they say or do.

The supreme leader also castigated Rouhani and other reformists for attacking a constitutional panel that decides who will run in the elections. He considered criticism to the panel as a major sin.

Political failure

Iranian citizens seem, however, to have realized the enormity of the failure of their country’s institutions in solving Iran’s political and economic problems.

The Iranian economy has been deteriorating because of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. against the background of Iran’s failure to abide by the terms of the nuclear deal with world powers.

Growing awareness among the Iranians was manifest in a recent poll by Iranian television on February 6. The poll showed that almost 80 per cent of Iranian citizens would not participate in the elections.